How do the FLDS people support themselves? Are they wealthy?

They have built a hierarchy where there are various strata of favor in the society. There are many FLDS who do not live in the compound because they are not "advanced" enough. they are gunning to get a place in the compound, but have not received enough favor to get that position. A way to gain favor is to send lots of money to the compound. And THAT'S where much of the money comes from.

Another point is that it takes precious few dollars to live in this lifestyle. What do you suppose their clothing budget is? Cars? Insurance? How much would you save each month if you didn't have cable? cell phone? meals out? CDs? DVDs? sporting events? electronic games?

Their monthly budget per person would likely fall well below what we call the poverty line.

Integrating these children into mainstream society will cost us tax payers a LOT of $$$$$$$$

A few years ago before Jeffs took over and FLDS was more benign, people actually joined up. When they did, they turned all their property over to the church. The church is quite wealthy. It is reported that the leaders large homes may look ramshackle from the outside, but they are quite nice inside.

Even in the desert, those gigantic houses cost a lot.

The church (which is synonymous with Jeffs) owns businesses. The men and boys do work at them. One of them gets multi million dollar defense contracts. Their businesses are not simplistic like the life style they force on the women. Merril Jessop, who runs FLDS while Jeffs is in jail, owns a string of motels I think.

The women receive all sorts of state aid for dependent children.

In Colorado City Az, they ran the public school system. The state gave them the same millions that any district gets, with x dollars per pupil. The children didn't actually attend much, and the leaders used the money to buy a private plane. This is only one of the ways in which Utah and Arizona have been complicit in supporting these organizations over the years. They knew well what was going on, it was reported in the local papers.

I hear that Jeffs is providing top notch legal help for the FLDS 'royal families'. The rest use legal aid.

In Texas, we have an over abundance of churchs. (after all it is the bible belt, and we did have the Blue Laws up till a decade ago). When church families donate 10% of their income to their church, its not hard to create very nice churchs. (and its all either tax deductible or tax free)

The FLDS property buyer was rather wealthy, but, then, it does not take alot of money to buy thousands of acres in the middle of no where.

Yes, taxpayers will have to pay for this zoo. On one side, I can appreciate child protective services, but, in this case, its clearly in the religious persecution realm. The media tries to paint a child abuse angle of it, but, the locals know better.

I know of people living a polygamous lifestyle down the street from me. We live in a city suburb. If there is a annoymous phone call (which can't be traced to its origin, nor, any trace of any proof that it actually happened)... can I look forward to the whole neighborhood being rounded up?

I have a guess that they send their boys to go build buildings and stuff. But I really don't know.

They probably are rich. What does it matter if they are rich.

hmm.. I wonder if the LDS isn't sending them money to go away and keep quiet.